Biomedical subjects

J Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to J Thompson.

917 records · Page 51Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Comparison of immunosuppression therapy following heart transplantation: pretransfusion/azathioprine/ATG/prednisone versus cyclosporine/prednisone.

Since the introduction of cyclosporine in heart transplantation, the search for the ideal combination of immunosuppressive agents continues. Between January 1983 and February 1985, 32 patients have been randomized prospectively to either one of two immunosuppressive regimens: one includes pretransplant transfusion, prednisone, azathioprine and rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin [Group I, n = 14], the other includes cyclosporine and prednisone [Group II, n = 18]. There were no differences between Group I and II in relation to age distribution, indications for transplantation, preoperative serum creatinine, length of follow-up, mortality or number of rejection episodes per patient. However, there was a statistically significant increase in the incidence of serious infections in Group I compared to Group II patients, and also in Group II of the incidence of systemic hypertension (p less than 0.001), of symptomatic pericardial effusion (p less than 0.05) and impaired renal function (p less than 0.02). Adding cyclosporine to azathioprine immunosuppression is effective in treating ongoing rejection in patients not previously treated with cyclosporine. In conclusion, patients treated with azathioprine and prednisone (Group I) develop a greater number of serious infections, but both groups had a similar incidence of rejection. The development of renal dysfunction and hypertension in patients treated with cyclosporine continues to be of concern and may preclude its use as an effective long-term immunosuppressive agent in heart transplant recipients.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Live attenuated influenza vaccines in young seronegative children.

Seronegative children undergoing primary infection sensitively reflect the residual virulence of an experimental attenuated respiratory vitral vaccine. Two temperature sensitive (ts) A/Hong Kong influenza vaccines derived following chemical mutagenesis of a cloned stock of A/Great Lakes/65 have been evaluated in vaccine trials in seronegative children. The two vaccines, ts-1[A] and ts 1[E], differ in their laboratory characteristics. Ts-1[A] has a lower shut-off temperature, 37 degrees C vs 38 degrees C, and more limited replication in the Syrian hamster model system than ts-1[E]. In A/HK seronegative adults ts-1[A] is noninfectious whereas ts-1[E] will replicate and induce an antibody response. The genetic lesion of ts-1[A] was stable in the young child; in contrast, late in the course of virus shedding, ts-1[E] exhibited genetic instability with 4 individuals shedding virus which had lost the ts marker. Transmission to controls was rare with both vaccines being observed in only 1 of 5 controls with ts-1[A] and none of six controls with ts-1[E]. There were no respiratory symptoms associated with ts-1[A] vaccine virus shedding. Ts-1[E] virus shedding had a suggestive association with fever and cough in the seronegative child. The trials in seronegative children extent and confirm the inherent differences between ts-1[A] and ts-1[E] vaccine strains and support the concept that laboratory markers of attenuation are predictive of vaccine behavior in the seronegative child.

Administration, Intranasal↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Ultrastructural localization of carcino-embryonic antigen in a continuous human tumour cell line (LS 174 T) in relation to morphometric investigations.

The synthesis of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in human tumour cell cultures has been investigated at the ultrastructural level in the colon carcinoma cell line LS 174 T. By application of a CEA-specific antibody fraction, gained from goat serum which was directly coupled with horse radish peroxidase (HRP), the expression of CEA could be followed in the cell culture both intra- and extracellularly with ultra-immunohistochemical methods, utilizing the pre-embedding technique. Morphometric and ultra-immunohistochemical investigations showed the possible involvement of the Golgi systems in CEA production. The changes in the volume fraction of the Golgi apparatus related to the total cell volume showed a direct correlation with the CEA content in the cell culture supernatants. Freeze-etch control experiments revealed negligible structural changes in the cells following ethyl-dimethyl-aminopropylcarbodiimide (EDC)-and saponin permeation techniques.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMedDate not supplied